Right at the start of our conversation, Sergei is keen to emphasise that he never killed anyone. “I wouldn’t be able to live if I was responsible for hurting anyone,” insists the former Russian soldier, who spent several weeks on the frontline with Ukraine in the war’s second year.
Claiming he never used his rifle — even for protection — the conscript says his refusal to fire his weapon in anger is how he ended up wounded within days of arriving on the battlefield. “I was lucky to get injured within the first few days,” Sergei remembers. He first spent a week at a field hospital in occupied Ukraine, before being sent back to Russia as his wound became infected.
But even as Sergei (not his real name) was recuperating, he was informed that he would soon be sent back to the killing fields. “I couldn’t go back,” he recalls thinking. “I couldn’t be part of this.” And so, with the help of an underground Russian railroad, he hatched an escape plan, one that would take him on an epic journey through the Russian wilderness to freedom.
Yet if Sergei is now safe, hiding out in exile abroad, Idite Lesom, the organisation which saved him, is setting its sights far higher than individual peaceniks. Launched in 2022, the group has helped thousands of like-minded Russians escape their country’s war, even as its vast network of volunteers has helped thousands more avoid military service through legal and logistical support.
Clearly, that’s a boon to Russians unwilling to kill and die for their country. But more than that, the work of Idite Lesom has broader lessons too. For one thing, it speaks vividly to how Russia is now fuelling its Ukrainian operations, with rising losses on the battlefield sucking in thousands of reluctant young conscripts like Sergei. No less important, it hints at how Kyiv’s nightmare may finally end — not by Russia’s total military defeat, but through the chipping away of the flesh-and-blood resources that Moscow needs to keep fighting.
Idite Lesom is inextricably linked to Russia’s shock invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Founded as an anti-war movement in September that year, it has grown into a full-fledged operation with one unrelenting focus: to starve the Russian war effort by taking away its manpower, one dissenting soldier at a time.
If nothing else, Idite Lesom’s ambitions are clear from its name. Translated from Russian, the phrase means “go by the forest!” That’s both a reference to the route some conscripts take to escape, and a dig at the Russian army — “Idite lesom!” also means “Get lost!”
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